Dear Kickstarters,

I know that it has been almost a month since our last update and that you are likely wondering how things are progressing with the COOKOO watch project.

I am sorry I kept you waiting so long.

This past month has been very eventful for us here at ConnecteDevice starting with with the official COOKOO launch at CES 2013 in Vegas. Thank you to those who came out to greet us there.

Our R&D team has been hard at work on both the Android app and the root causing and resolving the issues observed by some iOS users (esp. things such as dropped connections, difficulty pairing, higher than expected phone battery drain on iPhone 5, etc.).

Resolving the issues brought to us by our customers is critical to us, and has been the team's 100% focus (including mine).

To root-out the connectivity issues, I attended a testing event to help foster better interoperability between devices.
As a result of the testing at the event expect that the user experience will be vastly improved in the next iOS app update still scheduled to submit to Apple this month, and we were able to advance our Android app.

Unfortunately, this 100% focus meant that communication was lower than I would have liked as I couldn't spend time updating you all and responding to every message in a timely fashion. It also made it clear that we needed to consolidate our communications.

As such, moving forward, we will keep backers and customers alike up-to-date by creating regular updates on our cookoowatch.com website and by updating our Facebook page (facebook.com/thecookoowatch) and this will be the last Kickstarter page update for this project.

COOKOO Watch Shipments

We have now shipped almost all of the watches to backers.

If you have not yet received your COOKOO watch, it is likely due to a request to hold the watch until an Android app is released, an address error, shipping issue, or other logistic issue that most likely requires additional information from you to resolve. If this is you, please contact our support team at support.cookoowatch.com.

Keyfobs

We rejected the January batch of keyfobs from our supplier and, due to the Chinese New Year holiday at the factories, will not be receiving a new batch until late February or early March. We will ship these out as soon as they have been received.

Watch Band Packs

We will be sending-out the final watchband packs in at the end of February after our supplier's have resumed operations following the Chinese New Year holiday.

iOS App

As noted, our iOS development team has been 100% focused on resolving the connectivity and battery drain issues raised by our customers.
Our next iOS app update will greatly improve the experience.

We have also added usability enhancements to our app including our "Notification center", "My accounts", and "My settings" screens plus the ability to turn on/off music control feature from within the app settings. We have also added Twitter notifications so now you'll know when you get a tweet!
Check out the video to see the new enhancements in action (note that this is an early demo of the new features).

Email notifications will, however, be deferred to the next build of the app scheduled for March. Stay tuned for more updates at www.cookoowatch.com.

Fortunately, we have been able to develop and test-out much of the app in anticipation of these APIs and are now able to demonstrate when we turn off secure connections in the watch:

Incoming call alerts

Missed call alerts

SMS alerts

Alarm alerts

Calendar alerts

Still to come are low and critical battery alerts, email alerts, Facebook chats and messages, and actions triggered by watch commands.

Once we have received the new APIs, we will be able to complete the app, release it to our BETA customers, refine the app based-on our BETA customers' feedback, and formally release the app to all of you.

Our revised schedule is now to release the Android BETA for selected Samsung and HTC phones one month after receiving the APIs, and the final app following the one month BETA.

APIs

Due to our focus on the iOS connectivity enhancements and Android app, we will be shifting our release of the iOS APIs and developer center until March. The Android APIs will be released following the final app release. If you are developer, please reach us at Developer@ConnecteDevice.com

Thank you as always for your support throughout this project and I look forward to chatting with you on Facebook!

Yes - you heard right!

To YOU our faithful backers and customers - we just wanted to let you know that the app update you've all been waiting for is now ready for sale in the app store.

To recap - this app brings you:

Improved background operation (reliable notifications even when backgrounded for a long time)

Improved connection stability (far fewer unexpected connection drops)

Music control (start your music player, then control your music from your watch by pressing the COMMAND button to play/pause (short button press), SKIP (medium button press), and stop the player with a long button press.

Warranty registration

Alarm clock (so that you can be woken-up by your watch when your phone is muted).

Timer (so that you can receive timer alerts on your watch when your phone is muted).

Plus a number of other enhancements...

We are extremely excited to get this app update to you and look forward to hearing about the updated experience.

NOTE: Please allow 24-48hrs for the app to be visible in the app store for download.

Still to come in the coming weeks

An update on Android (yes, we are still very actively working on a solution for you and expect a BETA in February)

The next scheduled iOS app is also planned for the end of February and will include:

A notification center

Email notifications via an email service

SMS notifications via an SMS service

Twitter notifications

Multi-language support

Plus other enhancements to the Connected Map and to camera feature in the app.

Thank you all for your valuable feedback!

We are listening, and your feedback helps us constantly refine the COOKOO® Watch experience!